Wirgin
Wirgin era una società tedesca che è ancora nota per i suoi marchi Wirgin e Edixa e per i suoi dati di fotocamere come Edina, Edinex o Gewirette. Ha sede nella capitale Assia Wiesbaden e realizzava una linea di reflex 35mm piuttosto economiche anni '50 agli anni '70, tra cui Edixa Reflex e Edixa-Mat Reflex. Wirgin era il principale produttore tedesco di fotocamere reflex con otturatore sul piano focale. Ha anche prodotto alcuni obiettivi per le sue fotocamere, tra cui diversi obiettivi con una vite M42. Wirgin was founded by the brothers Heinrich, Max and Josef Wirgin in 1920. In 1932 , p.1011. the company surprised the market with a very small viewfinder camera for type 127 film, the Gewirette. From the mid-1930s it also made Edinex 35mm viewfinder cameras, which they produced also as Adrette for Adox. These came equipped with a Wirgin Gewironar lens and a Compur shutter or a Steinheil Culminar lens (like a Tessar) in a Prontor shutter. In 1938 circumstances in Germany had changed since the Nazi party had reached the peak of its success, pushed by the Olympics in Berlin in 1936 and the economic upswing. In their delusion of grandeur the political leaders decided to start making true all their only ideologically justified abhorrent menaces against minorities in Germany, especially against the Jews. Heinrich and Josef Wirgin still lead their company in Wiesbaden, but with the help of one of their clerks they managed to escape from Germany. Max might have been already in the US, his brothers followed. The Wirgin factory in Wiesbaden became incorporated into the Adox company. After the war Heinrich Wirgin came back from America, now as Henry Wirgin, and refounded the Wirgin company in Wiesbaden. An administrative officer of the American occupied zone of Germany sent Heinz Waaske as promising aspirant to Wirgin. At that time Waaske had sold his prototype of a subminiature camera to the Americans. In 1951 the talented mechanician Waaske became a camera constructor. He constructed the company's first SLR, a model with focal plane shutter, the first camera like that in Western Germany. He also constructed a more elegant SLR prototype, and later a complicated electronically controlled SLR with Compur shutter, and a stereo rangefinder camera. In 1962 Henry Wirgin bought Franka. Since then several Edixa 35mm viewfinder cameras had been made in the Franka-Kamerawerk in Bayreuth/Oberfranken. Made in Bayreuth and Wiesbaden were the small Edixa 16 cameras for 16mm film with removable coupled or uncoupled selenium meter, all derived from an original model designed by Heinz Waaske in Wiesbaden and developed and produced in Wiesbaden and Bayreuth as Edixa 16, Franka 16, or, for the Karstadt warehouses, as alka 16. Waaske left Wirgin since Henry Wirgin had decided to give up camera production sooner or later. Wirgin granted the rights on a new 35mm viewfinder camera to Waaske. This camera was none less than the prototype of what became the famous Rollei 35. Waaske had constructed it at Wirgin company. In 1967 the Franka-Werk was closed. In 1968 Henry Wirgin closed his original company and continued the production of some camera models in a new smaller plant. In 1971, shortly before its closing, the company introduced a quite modern but heavy SLR camera. Some cameras sold by Wirgin and its American sales branch Edixa were not made by Wirgin or Franka, mainly the Edixa 8mm movie camera which was made in Japan. Henry Wirgin died in 1989, at the age of 90 years, in Wiesbaden. He had not only been one of the top entrepreneurs of the West German camera industry, he was also engaged in recovering normal friendly relationships of non-jewish Germans to jewish citizens as chairman of the Society for German-Jewish co-operation. 35mm film * Wirgin Edinex series *Wirgin Edixa series (viewfinder/rangefinder models) *Wirgin Edixa series (SLR models) *Wirgin Komet 16mm film * Edixa 16 series 127 film * Gewirette * Reporter * Klein-Edinex 120 film * some sophisticated bellows cameras and several other folding cameras like the Rofika (=Rollfilmkamera) * Wirgin Reflex (export version of the Reflecta) * Wirgin Reflex (export version of the Altiflex) * Wirgin Reflex (name variant of the Hollywood Reflex) * the simpler camera line Presto, also made as the Adox Sport * Wirgin Auta * Wirgin Junior * Wirgin Deluxe (made by Vokar) Notes Links General links In English: * History of Wirgin (German version) by Klaus-Eckhard Riess in his camera site In Spanish: * Wirgin at Historia de Bolsillo by J. Noir In German: * Wirgin.de website by Stefan Schaum - Holzappel In French: * Wirgin page at Collection G. Even's site * Cameras and user manuals at www.collection-appareils.fr Miscellaneous In English: * Edixa SLR cameras in Andrey's M42 pages * Other manuals at butkus.org's Orphan Cameras: ** Edina I and II ** Edixa I and II ** Edixa Reflex ** Edixa Reflex (other) * Wirgin camera's in Andrys Stienstra's camera collection In German: * Edixa Flex and Edixa-mat Kadett in Klaus-Eckhard Riess' camera site * Edixa Stereo IA and Edixa Stereo IIIA in Welt der Stereoskopie Category: German camera makers *